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Chicken Salad

A salad of chopped cooked chicken, celery, and egg yolks dressed with mustard, salt, oil, vinegar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chicken Salad

Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the cooked chicken and celery into small pieces.

  2. In a bowl, rub the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs until smooth.

Make the dressing

  1. Add mustard, salt, oil, and vinegar to the egg yolks and mix well.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the chicken and celery in a large bowl.

  2. Pour the dressing over the chicken and celery, adding cream.

  3. Serve immediately after adding the dressing.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Celery + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,627 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hard-boiled egg yolks
Mashed smooth, they emulsify with the oil and vinegar to thicken and enrich the dressing.
Oil
Adds fat that emulsifies with the yolks, giving the dressing a smooth, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the yolks and oil.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, loosening the dressing so it coats the chicken and celery.

The step that matters

Serve immediately after adding the dressing. Vinegar and moisture in the dressing soften the celery and can thin the mixture over time, so it loses crispness and texture if left to sit.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, mustard, vinegar, cream):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, mustard, vinegar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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